Mark Reynolds in The Hill: A bipartisan climate solution is possible

With Democrats controlling the House, a bipartisan climate solution is possible

By Mark Reynolds, Executive Director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby

Mark Reynolds’ op-ed in The Hill, published the morning after the 2018 midterm elections, lays out a positive vision for bipartisan climate action in the newly Democratic House. You can also read post-election statements from Mark and Danny Richter, CCL’s VP of Government Affairs, here.

As the dust settles from the midterm election to reveal a new political landscape in Washington, hope emerges that congressional action to rein in climate change may finally find traction after a decade-long drought.

Come January, Democrats will control the agenda in the House of Representatives, and some of them are eager to bring carbon pricing legislation to the table. As reported in The Hill last month, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) is expected to push for a carbon fee bill. “The House has an opportunity to move something forward — hopefully with bipartisan support — that the president would then have to respond to,” Deutch said.

How the president responds depends largely on whether a bill attracts Republican support, and Deutch has cause for optimism on that front. As co-chair of the bipartisan Climate Solution Caucus, which has an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, Deutch has seen this group of strange bedfellows grow from a dozen members to 90 in just two years. The Berlin Wall dividing the two parties on this issue is crumbling. There are now dozens of Republicans who acknowledge the existence of human-caused climate change, and they are willing to seek the common ground on solutions.